4 ONION-RAISING. 



vation of the crop on the same piece of land unprofitable ; 

 and this leads the prudent cultivator to transfer it to some 

 other portion of his farm. 



Onions are sometimes raised by ploughing up old pasture- 

 land in September, thoroughly harrowing it before frost sets 

 in, and in the spring working in fine manure very thor- 

 oughly with the harrow and cultivator. The" result of such 

 planting is to get a crop very free from weeds, with onions 

 usually coarse, and more or less of scallions. 



Onions can be raised on a variety of soils, but yield the 

 most satisfactory returns on a sandy loam, a gravelly soil, 

 or, to state a general rule, on those soils which are light in 

 structure. As onions are brought on the heavier soils, the 

 first effect will be a deterioration in their appearance ; the 

 outer skin of the yellow varieties losing its fine, clear, trans- 

 lucent yellow, and becoming thicker, duller, and less attrac- 

 tive in appearance. On a large, reclaimed, mucky meadow, 

 located in Chester and Goshen, in Orange County, N.Y., I 

 have seen over five hundred acres growing on one continu- 

 ous piece of land, with the exception that here and there a 

 few acres of potatoes were scattered among them. Intend- 

 ing to reclaim a meadow of a dozen acres, and bring it into 

 onions, I made a jouriiey of between two and three hundred 

 miles, specially to learn what was possible from so extensive 

 an experience. Two facts covered all there was to be learned : 

 first, they aimed to keep the water at about two and a half 

 feet below the surface ; second, they carted on to each acre 

 of this black, mucky soil one hundred two-horse carloads 

 of a very fine sandy and gravelly loam, made by the decom- 

 position of a slaty rock, and this they spread on the surface, 

 and aimed in all their cultivation to keep as near there as 

 possible. If planted on a wet or very heavy soil, the crop 



